I Need a lot of Help...

[nyrrangers123]

Hey everyone! First off I would like to mention that I just started D&D about a month ago, anyways.....

When I started D&D the group of friends I play with threw a character at me so I could immediately start playing with them (dragonborn paladin) It has been about a month now and I would love to create a character I enjoy playing as. I was thinking of being a minotaur death knight but have no idea how to begin so I was hoping someone could guide me through this process..... remember, I know very little about the game. I need help with stats, weapons (since it is a death knight it should have a quality weapon, right?) and powers.

[Dimers]

Please tell us the party's level, and something about what you enjoy about playing. For example, do you want a minotaur because they're big and tough (a role also filled by other races) or because you've enjoyed minotaurs in stories or because they're special in that gameworld? What kind of role do you want to fill -- will you be happiest with something highly skilled and full of expert tricks, is damage your only goal? That kind of thing.

[nyrrangers123]

Right now my party is level 3. I want to be a minotaur because they are big. I am a defender in my party. Since I am new to the game I would liket o keep my character as simple as possible. Also I want my character to rely on powers as little as possible.

[Tegu8788]

Sounds like a Slayer is right for you then. It is an Essentails class, not an AEDU one, what defends and could be fluffed into death knight pretty easily.

[nyrrangers123]

What is an Essentails class? What benefits would a slayer give me?

[Tegu8788]

Essentials is basically 4.5. It's fully compatible with 4E, but some DMs dislike it. It's a variant on the Fighter, and basically, the vast majority of the time you are using a Melee Basic Attack. You still have good defenses and HP like the paladin, so you can tank all you want without relying on lots of powers. Gameplay would be akin to "see enemy, hit enemy with a big stick."

[nyrrangers123]

Is there a guide to creating one I can use?

[Tegu8788]

I can't speak to how effective it is, or if there are any other good classes, but here one is. http://community.wizards.com/go/thre..._Slayers_Guide

[Adoendithas]

If you don't have the Essentials materials, a fighter would probably be the closest to what you'd want. You can get minotaur stats from either the back of the MM1 or the fromt of the PHB3.

[Sol]

A class exists called the Blackguard (which is a paladin subclass so would be semi-similar to what you know) that is essentially a death knight without any modifications.

It wears plate and is fairly simple, but (like the slayer) is primarily a damage dealer, not a tank.

What I'd do in your shoes is spring for a DDI subscription, even if only for a month, to play with the online character builder to become more familiar with all of the options and what they do. Reading the books it can be very hard to look at all of the powers in the lists and keep in mind that you can't have them all.

[Dimers]

Yup, sounds like an Essentials class would be best for you. Knight might also be good to look into. I only got DDI recently and don't own any of the Essentials books, so I can't tell you specifics, but I can say that the Str-based defenders from pre-Essentials usually have their share of gimmicks and choices to make during play.

If you want, though, I can put together a minotaur sword&board fighter, see how you like it. "Sword and board" means they use a one-handed weapon and a shield, as opposed to fighting with two weapons, grappling, or using a two-hander. It's good for the fighter's own defense and tends to help control or weaken enemies, though it doesn't deal as much damage as some builds and doesn't have as much control as others. It's decent all around without being complex to use.